ladybusiness | Our Favourite Media of November 2018

Each month, we look back over the media we loved in the previous month, from books to film to video games and more.

KJ

Widows directed by Steve McQueen — When I heard that Viola Davis was leading a heist movie about a group of women whose thief husbands are killed needing to pull of a job to pay their debts, I knew I had to see it. Though darker and more violent than I had expected, it was a brilliant film with fantastic acting and thoughtful messages about money and power. The slowly building camaraderie among the women was also wonderful.

Exit Strategy by Martha Wells — The final Murderbot novella more than sticks the landing. The mystery and the emotional arcs are all resolved beautifully, and I'm so excited for the forthcoming novel. I really want to go back now and re-read all four novellas in a row.

When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McElmore — I talked about this book a little bit already for our December Rec Roundtable. Despite not being a fan of magical realism in most contexts, I decided that I shouldn't play Latinx Book Bingo without trying at least one book in the genre. Out of a few recommendations, I decided up this novel -- perhaps because I remembered, somewhere in the back of my mind, that it won the Tiptree Award in 2017. And I enjoyed it a lot! The two main characters, Sam and Miel, are wonderful, separately and together, and I found their journey moving and compelling.

Susan

Donut County — Donut County is a very silly game about dropping things into portable holes, and I am not even joking with you. It feels a bit like a smaller-scale reverse Katamari game, where your goal is to drop larger and larger things into a hole until it's big enough to swallow the town! With friendship and low-key political commentary! It was short but satisfying, and I did have fun trying to work out the best way to solve the problems. ... Fair warning, though, if you are a person who talks to their games like I do, you're gonna get some funny looks when you start asking questions like "But why is there a snake sticking out of that hole?!"